World report

From Wire Reports

Published Saturday, January 05, 2008

50,000 Iraqi refugees return from Syria

BAGHDAD -- Nearly 50,000 Iraqi refugees returned home from Syria in the final 3 months of 2007, the latest sign of diminishing violence in this war-pocked country, according to new data from relief workers.

"Security has definitely improved, and improved by far," said Said Hakki, president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, the aid group that compiled the statistics. "And yet the return is really not that dramatic, when you consider that there are almost 2 million Iraqi refugees out of the country."

The new figures, contained in a report scheduled for release Monday, are significantly lower than those provided by some Iraqi officials. One Iraqi spokesman said nearly 50,000 returned in October alone.

The theft at the Federal University of Mato Grosso was carried out sometime between Monday, when the alligators were last fed, and Wednesday morning, when a zookeeper noticed their disappearance, zoo director Itamar Assumpcao told The Associated Press.

There were no signs of a break-in, he added.

U.S.-backed program draws criticism

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Persistent violence in volatile Diyala province prompted security forces to impose a daylong vehicle ban Friday in the provincial capital, Baqouba, as frictions grew over a U.S.-backed program to recruit Sunnis to fight the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq.

Dozens of protesters also took to the streets in two other Diyala towns, Muqdadiya and Buhruz, alleging that U.S. forces had detained at least two members of the local Awakening movement, the U.S.-financed citizen groups, local police officials said.

The protests underscore the U.S. military's tenuous position: Many of the volunteers are former Sunni insurgents who agreed to join forces with the Americans in exchange for $10 a day and the promise of a job. Although the effort has been credited with a significant reduction in violence, Shiite leaders are suspicious of the effort, and some military officials have warned that the success of the program might be difficult to sustain.